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If you have an affiliation with a group or another person, you are officially involved or connected with them.
Something that is bleak is sad, depressing, and offers little hope; for instance, a bleak landscape is bare and unwelcoming, while bleak weather is cold and cheerless.
Something is a blight if it spoils or damages things severely; blight is often used to describe something that ruins or kills crops.
Bonhomie is a friendly feeling among a group of people.
A cadre is a group specifically trained to lead, formalize, and accomplish a particular task or to train others as part of a larger organization; it can also be used to describe an elite military force.
Camaraderie is a feeling of friendship and trust among a group of people who have usually known each other over a long period of time.
A convivial atmosphere or occasion is friendly, pleasant, cheerful, and relaxed.
A cosmopolitan area represents large cultural diversity and people from around the globe; a cosmopolitan person is broad-minded and wise in the ways of the world.
A coterie is a small group of people who are close friends; therefore, when its members do things together, they do not want other people to join them.
Decrepitude is the state of being very old, worn out, or very ill; therefore, something or someone is no longer in good physical condition or good health.
Something, such as a building, is derelict if it is empty, not used, and in bad condition or disrepair.
A desolate area is unused, empty of life, deserted, and lonely.
If you are despondent, you are extremely unhappy because you are in an unpleasant situation that you do not think will improve.
A dilapidated building, vehicle, etc. is old, broken-down, and in very bad condition.
If you are disconsolate, you are very unhappy or so sad that nothing will make you feel better.
Weather that is dreary tends to be depressing and gloomy; a situation or person that is dreary tends to be boring or uninteresting.
A state of euphoria is one of extreme happiness or overwhelming joy.
Exclusion is the act of shutting someone out of a group or an activity.
An expatriate has been driven or exiled from their native land, so they are forced to live in another country; a person can also willingly become an expatriate.
A gregarious person is friendly, highly social, and prefers being with people rather than being alone.
The adjective hermetic describes something that is set apart, isolated, or separate from the influence or interference of society at large.
If you incarcerate someone, you put them in prison or jail.
Someone who is inconsolable has been so devastated by a terrible event that no one can help them feel better about it.
If someone is lugubrious, they are looking very sad or gloomy.
A metropolitan area contains a very large city.
Someone who is morose is unhappy, bad-tempered, and unwilling to talk very much.
If someone is ostracized from a group, its members deliberately refuse to talk or listen to them and do not allow them to take part in any of their social activities.
A pariah is a social outcast.
A recluse is someone who chooses to live alone and deliberately avoids other people.
Someone who is saturnine is looking miserable and sad, sometimes in a threatening or unfriendly way.
If you sequester someone, you keep them separate from other people.
A troglodyte also refers to prehistoric peoples who once lived in caves.
If you feel unrequited love for another, you love that person, but they don’t love you in return.
If you behave in an urbane way, you are behaving in a polite, refined, and civilized fashion in social situations.
A yokel is uneducated, naive, and unsophisticated; they do not know much about modern life or ideas because they sequester themselves in a rural setting.
Adj.
forlorn
for-LAWRN
Context
Woe is me, for I am forlorn, having been abandoned by my only true love. Why my beloved would leave me forlorn and lonely I know not. All I know is that the rest of my life will be forlorn and miserable without her in my life. I will move to some forlorn place, far away from humankind, where I can weep and moan in my utterly cheerless and deserted state.
Quiz:Try again!
How might someone look if they are feeling forlorn?
Forest Lonely Jeb the hermit was forlorn, alone and lonely in the deep, dark forest.
Examples
It didn't take long before the Professor realized that rescuing a forlorn dog might provide a ray of light amid all the gloom.
—
Chicago Tribune
Croft and Sim trade verses like a couple worn down from arguing—their lyrics are pleas and protests, but they're delivered in an empty, forlorn tone.
—
Rolling Stone
The cover price got you in the door, and if you got there early enough, a few snacks, as the snack table was looking completely ravaged by 6:30, with only a few forlorn chips left on the white tablecloths.
—
Wired
She drives down a dirt road with an endless backdrop of forlorn, wet tents.
—
NPR
Word Ingredients
for-
→
thoroughly, completely
lorn
→
lost
Someone who is “thoroughly or completely lost” usually feels forlorn because of it.
origin: Old English
Knowing language of origin or etymology is not important; but is sometimes interesting enough to make the word memorable. Only such words have associated maps.
Word Theater
Born Free The lioness Elsa is forlorn.
The panel shows a small video clip of either the word in actual use or a scene that represents the meaning of a word. This not only breaks up the monotony of studying words but also provides another avenue to strengthen word meaning. Enjoy!
